Population growth around the world, and particularly in certain parts of the United States, has created an escalating renewable energy and water shortage crisis. Currently, over twenty states have implemented renewable energy standards that require at least a certain amount of energy to come from renewable sources, such as hydroelectric power generated from renewable water sources. On a federal level, the U.S. Congress has presented bills in the past requiring a 20% renewable energy use by the year 2020. (See, http://mariasurmamanka.greenoptions.com/2007/02/28/congress-to-pass-federal-renewable-energy-standard/). Colorado is one of those states that has independently enacted this stringent renewable energy requirement, with the expectation of having 20% of the state's entire energy use supplied from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. That legislation was passed in 2007 as Colorado House Bill 1281. (See, http://www.colorado.gov/govemor/press/march07/renewable-energy.html).
Despite the current movement supporting renewable energy sources, many legislators and policy-makers are attempting to meet this requirement by passing further legislation that relate solely to wind and solar power generation, and do not address renewable energy produced from water. One example is Colorado House Bill 1222, presented by the Colorado State Legislature, which requires the state to expand its wind and solar generation infrastructure, but does not address the significant shortcomings with respect to continuous collection and storage of such energy. This sentiment has been embodied in a number of recent articles in The Denver Post, including one editorial titled “Wind Farm a good start”, published on Oct. 4, 2007, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. In summary, given the over-reliance on wind and solar generated power, which is difficult to store and is unreliable as it occurs sporadically, there needs to be a greater emphasis on the use of water to meet the states' and the country's renewable energy goals.
Current methods for accumulating and preserving water supplies include storage systems, such as dams, levies, basins, wells and reservoirs. However, these storage systems are frequently located on-river, at low or medium-elevations, and without the ability to efficiently distribute their water supply in multiple directions to accommodate for varying regional growth and seasonal demands, as well as unpredictable climate change conditions. These low altitude systems are also subject to relatively high evaporative losses. There are certain advantages, including economic and environmental advantages, to collecting and storing water at high elevations during periods of high water run-off from spring snowmelt and summer storms. Naturalists have known that high-altitude beaver dams have protected and enhanced river valleys and environments for thousands of years, and many hydrologists recognize that headwater reservoirs have multiple use and reuse advantages for entire river systems over comparable down river storage facilities.
Unfortunately, the latent multiple economic and environmental advantages of headwater reservoirs for multiple river systems have not been recognized and applied in mountainous headwater areas. Institutional barriers and potential technical constraints have historically worked against integrated regional water resource planning with respect to high-altitude pumped-storage capabilities. As a result, most reservoirs in the United States are located down-river at relatively low and medium-altitude sites. These traditional dams, on free flowing rivers frequently have limited economic benefits for human needs, and may cause serious environmental impact.
Unfavorable benefit vs. impact realities are responsible for recent extended moratoriums against most new water storage projects. As a result, renewable water and energy shortages are now commonplace, and plans for future needs are problematic. The breakthrough regional water and energy productivity advancements from this integrated high-altitude pumped-storage invention can be used to quickly recover from moratoriums and shortage, while providing for future needs.
Furthermore, recent Department of Interior and Bureau of Reclamation dam safety studies have predicted that certain dams located in the western United States could suddenly fail because their structures are not designed to safely pass floods above 55% of today's projected Probable Maximum Flood (“PMF”) criteria. As a result of the potential for catastrophic failure, both lives and property interests are at risk. By contrast, an off-river, high-altitude storage reservoir would not require an emergency spillway, because the reservoir's upstream drainage basin is generally relatively small, and the dam can be designed to provide a greater freeboard capacity. The high-altitude storage reservoir could be connected to several downstream reservoirs by pumping means, which would allow increased water levels at those downstream reservoirs to be reduced by diverting water to the high-altitude storage reservoir. This reduces the potential for sudden and unexpected failure of the dams, mitigating or preventing risk of loss during high run-off periods or floods.
A centrally located, high altitude storage reservoir would also provide a positive environmental and economic impact as a source of both renewable energy and water. Such a high-altitude reservoir does not require geographical constraints such as being located on-river or in a discrete river basin. The centrally located, high-altitude reservoir's large storage capacity, coupled with high-volume pumping capabilities, allow such a flexible system to be operated more efficiently than lower altitude, down river reservoirs, and further reduce catastrophic flood risks and erosion risks such as during periods of high run-off to downstream residents and properties.
There are several known systems for distributing water between reservoirs. For example, the Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project, located at http://www.nypa.gov/facilities/blengil.htm discloses a reservoir system capable of generating electricity in peak demand periods by drawing water from Schoharie Creek and recycling it between two huge reservoirs. However, this abstract fails to disclose distributing water from multiple lower elevations to a centrally located storage reservoir at a higher elevation for increasing the potential of both water and hydroelectric energy.
WIPO Publication No. WO9721922 to Curtui, entitled “Total Electric Water System,” published Jun. 19, 1997 (“the '922 Publication”), discloses a reservoir system with multiple segments of piping placed in series, wherein a lower elevation is reached by distributing water from a higher elevation, and the water is directed out of the pipeline system and becomes a source of water at a lower elevation or is directed to areas with a water deficit. The pipeline system is made up from one or more units set downwardly each unit in connection with the other. However, the '922 Publication does not disclose distributing the water for meeting seasonal/non-seasonal water and electrical power generation demands, and otherwise has the same shortcomings as the Blenheiim-Gilboa Project abstract as outlined above.
Ukrainian Patent No. UA 61,220 to Arkadiiovy, issued Nov. 17, 2003, “the '220 patent” discloses a hydro-energy complex for mountain regions, which includes a cascade of hydroelectric power plants with multiple water reservoirs placed in series in a valley where a mountain river flows, and also coupled with multiple hydroelectric power plants. However, the '220 patent fails to disclose a system or method for returning water from downstream reservoirs to upstream reservoirs during low demand periods, or diverting water between several mountain-region valleys and/or river basins.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,627 to Casebow entitled “Apparatus for Generating Electrical Power” issued Mar. 11, 1980 (“the '627 patent”), discloses a system designed to maintain constant head pressure to achieve continuous electrical power generation. While the '627 patent does disclose interconnected reservoirs for the purpose of generating electrical power, it does not describe a system or method designed to selectively divert water to maximize electrical power generation and water supply efficiencies throughout the region's multiple river basins.
Thus, these and other problems presently exist in the art, resulting in the need for a system and method for efficiently producing a renewable water, and energy source from a collected high-altitude water supply, which may be distributed based on daily, seasonal, cyclic and/or regional water and energy related demands, and which further accomplishes the objectives described in the following Summary of the Invention.